Cole called tonight and said that Salee and Abu Ali had made it safely home to Fallujah.  There was a welcoming party with a huge feast and a sacrificial lamb.  All was well, and they were happy.

But happiness must be a pretty relative thing in a city that’s been decimated by siege and sanction.  In a city where nobody doesn’t have somebody that they loved who’s been killed as a result of our invasion.

I want to think of Salee happy.  Her smile lit up every room into which she walked (or wheeled).  Her laugh was infectious.  Her joy was pure. (more…)

Our little girl has gone. And my heart with her. I just returned from a week in Los Angeles, Salee’s first stop on her trip home to Iraq.

Sitting in LAX waiting for my flight home, as Salee, Abu Ali and Cole fly on to New York for a three day stop before heading to the Middle East, I think of the past week. Cole’s incredible passion for the cause filled the week with presentations and schedules to meet, but also many memories.

I’ll never forget Abu Ali’s eloquence when speaking about Iraq. I’ll never forget his face when he tells of a family near him, seven members killed in one bombing and a soldier coming to the hospital and saying “Sorry”. “SORRY?” Abu Ali says. “You killed seven people and all we hear is ‘sorry’? But that’s how it always is,” he adds sadly. He talks about Iraq before the invasion, how Shia and Sunni lived together peacefully, without a thought. “Sectarian violence? There wasn’t any,” he says. “We were friends.” (more…)

Cole and I went to a lunchtime presentation today given by Congressman Bob Inglis who has monthly talks with his constituents in area restaurants. Today’s topic was “Accountability in Iraq”. Apparently, although we are the ones who invaded their country, bombed their cities, destroyed their infrastructure and are killing their people, accountability rests entirely on the shoulders of the Iraqis.

The main frustration in the room seemed to be that the new Iraqi government wasn’t getting the situation in Iraq under control. The fact that “control” might be a little difficult when your country had 160,000 armed foreign troops in tanks and airplanes firing upon its citizens, when they hadn’t had a full day’s electricity in four and a half years, clean drinking water was an expensive luxury most cannot afford, and starvation was as big a danger as imminent death from US firepower, seemed to have entirely eluded these people. The fact that a government forced upon you by the very people who had invaded your country might not actually be accepted as legitimate by victims of the invasion, also seemed to be an alien concept. (more…)

In recognition of Father’s Day, Brave New Films made a brief video about Ismaeel Hussein and his nine-year-old son, Abdul Hakeem Khalaf. You can see it here.

Abdul was disfigured when US mortar rounds struck his home during the April 2004 attack on Fallujah. Doctors at a small clinic were able to save the boy’s life, but his father, Ismaeel Hussein, could find no one to repair the damage to Abdul’s face. Such services are not available in occupied Iraq.

No More Victims, an American organization, learned about Abdul Hakeem in 2005, and helped Ismaeel bring his son to the United States for treatment last year. The boy and his father will be returning this summer for follow-up care. (more…)

Alaa’ left Florida a little over a year ago. I had full intentions of keeping a journal during her stay; however, when I found time to write, I would draw a blank. It wasn’t due to writer’s block, lack of time, or even apathy. It was because I had a mixture of emotions. It was too hard to define, too hard to narrow down, too hard to describe.

I’m a mother. I’m a wife. I’m a daughter. I’m a law student. I’m a Muslim. I’m an American. I could label myself all day. But, at the end of the day, I’m a human being. So was Alaa’. So were the many people who died. And, a year later, I feel that I have a responsibility to share with others what I gained from Alaa’s visit. (more…)